NASA newly validated 95 extrasolar planets discovered by Kepler

via:博客园 time:2018/2/17 22:31:57 readed:483

In order to find livable terrestrial planets in the vast universe, people have long been looking out of the solar system. The Kepler space telescope from NASA has always brought us some surprises. Recently, the researchers announced a new batch of Kepler's findings. The number of close to one hundred (specifically 95), the total number of more than 2400. In fact, Kepler has already completed its main task, which is now under an extended mandate. Nearly 300 new planets have been discovered in the K2 phase, proving that the telescope has enough power to sort out the unseen extrasolar planets.

(Figure from: NASA / JPL)

For these new discoveries, scientists screened a large amount of data back from Kepler. In 2014, a large number of observations produced 275 "candidate" signals, but they may or may not be a single planet.

After screening the data item by item, 149 signals remained, of which 95 were brand new. Andrew Mayo from the National Institute of Space Science at the University of Denmark said at a news conference:

In space science, the discovery of exoplanets is a very exciting thing.

As more planets are discovered, astronomers will have a deeper understanding of the nature of exoplanets and vice versa, allowing us to understand how our own solar system is in the Milky Way.

Some of the newly discovered extrasolar planets, some smaller than the Earth, some larger than Jupiter, and one quite special. In many cases, extrasolar planets are hundreds of thousands of light years away from the Earth, making it difficult for researchers to determine livability.

However, this is an extrasolar planet captured by Kepler so far around the brightest star. The higher the brightness of a star, the easier it is for us to study it, and the follow-up observation leads to more information.